Safe As Houses

Nick Summers interviews Thomas Dart, the sheriff in Cook County Illinois who has refused to perform any more foreclosure evictions:

Until you’re physically out there, you can’t really get the magnitude of what you’re actually up to. It sounds like it’s an antiseptic process, and it’s anything but that. In the majority of the homes I was going into, there were always little kids aroundI mean, really young kids, and we’re taking them and putting them out on the street. A lot of them were seniors, and a lot of them had issues with dementia. Once againwe’re taking them out to the street … Most of these neighborhoods are not good neighborhoods. Once [their belongings are] out on the street, we leave. While they’re off looking for transportation, the few things they own are being stolen.

(hat tip: Mary Kane; painting by Amy Casey)